Poker Pro Dwyte Pilgrim Accused Of Hustling Players

Amidst the high number of summer and fall poker tournaments, there will always be some controversy. This time, it surrounds pro player Dwyte Pilgrim, who is being accused of hustling other players. It has come to light, thanks to fellow player Aaron Massey, that Pilgrim asked for a loan, but has since defaulted on repaying that debt and to top it off, refusing to repay.

According to Massey, this isn’t the first time that Pilgrim has done something like this, and that he has taken money and loans from other professional players and never pay them back. These are rare cases, as there is certain decorum in the poker world, where pro’s are held to a higher standard. They need to have solid reputations, honest and upfront, obviously not during a tournament as they really need to be ruthless to win. However, when they are not playing at the tables, they need to be respectable, and for the most part, they are.

As the popular card game is based on and around money, there will always be a few outliers to the norm. For instance, a few months ago, Ben Warrington’s reputation was hit hard, as it was shown that he was overselling packages when he competed in Las Vegas. Now, we have Massey calling Pilgrim out on asking for a loan, defaulting, and refusing to repay the debt owed. Once this was brought to light, others started stepping forward saying the same exact thing about Pilgrim.

Both of these players became fast friends while touring around the different tournaments, where Pilgrim won the WPT Borgata Poker Open for $733,802 and Massey later went on to win the Winstar River Poker Series Main Event for $651,559. Massey, when talking about Pilgrim and the defaulted loan mentioned,

“It’s unlikely that Dwyte will pay me back, because he has zero honor or integrity. I thought his name meant a lot to him. He always seemed very proud of his name, and his legacy. That is why it baffles me that he would risk ruining it all, instead of doing whatever he could to restore or maintain it. Had he agreed to pay me $1 or $10 or $20 when he saw me, I would’ve continued to protect his name. If he showed me any consideration at all as a friend, or even as a human being, I wouldn’t have gone public like this.”

It doesn’t look like anything can be resolved, but now that many readers and players know about this situation, they may be more suspicious if Pilgrim comes up to them to ask for money. He has won more than two million dollars in poker during his career, yet he is asking for loans, that doesn’t sound like a player anyone would want to get behind.